Businessman and active social media figure Bryan Zammit signed on as an independent candidate for July’s by-election this morning at the Gibraltar Parliament. Mr Zammit says the main thrust of his campaign would be to “bring an end to party politics.”

He payed his respects to the late Charles Bruzon but said that, however tragic the reasons behind the by-election, it was really the “only chance” for an independent candidate to get into Parliament saying that a vote for the parties already represented would amount to a “wasted vote.”

Asked what he would bring to the political arena if he were elected, Mr Zammit said he would call on the Chief Minister to hold a referendum to allow people to decide whether party politics ought to be eliminated. He said that the current system “only favours those who are in Government and their friends.” He also argued that a move away from party politics would thereby eliminate “favouritism and jobs and businesses for the boys.”

Mr Zammit said he envisaged the alternative to the current practice to be a new system where the electorate would vote for individuals who have first-hand experience of the areas they would manage.

“You would get teachers standing for the Ministry of Education…doctors and nurses standing for the Ministry of Health…people who really understand the issues.”

The independent candidate also criticized the predominance of lawyers in political office, saying that these professionals are experts in debating but might not necessarily be the best people to whom to entrust the running of Gibraltar.

Mr Zammit reminded the public that an opinion poll conducted by him in the 1990s showed that 78% of people were in favour of an elimination of party politics. “I believe this feeling has been growing since then.”

“I would like Gibraltar to become much more united; we’re divided only on the issue of politics,” he concluded.